Within the Family
by Nozume
Summary: Kagome and Souta once had a dad. Unfortunately for them, he disappeared soon after Souta was born. So now, years later, they stumble upon clues to where their father could be. Now they both separate to go on their respective route to find what happen to their father and why he left. Good luck to you two, you're going to need it with the people you'll meet on the way!


Disclaimer: Katekyou Hitman Reborn (Akira Amano) and Inuyasha (Rumiko Takahashi) are not my property or my creation. I apologize for any issues this may cause.

Rating: T (may go up in further chapters)

* * *

Chubby little hands grasp a handful of raven locks, pulling tightly and harshly to gain attention. "Hey dad, guess what?" The child continued to pull, not even caring to acknowledge her father's startled reaction, "Dad! Listen!" She pouted angrily and finally decided that the correct course of action was to head butt the back of her father's head.

The male carrying the child on his shoulder gave out a yelp of pain and stumbled on his own feet. Regaining his balance quickly, he turned his head as best he could to stare back at the glaring child on him. "Kagome dear, I heard you the first time." He gave her sigh and a whimper of pain, "Just tell me what it is." As much as he did love his daughter, she really had a temper that could almost rival his.

Almost.

A frown stretched across her face, "You don't sound like you want to know!" It was something really big, and Kagome just wanted to explode it out to her father. But really, if his attitude was going to be like that, then she would rather not tell him in the first place.

"No no!" Eyes widen, full of surprise and worry, "I do want to know! Tell me! What happened!"

She grinned, "Well, if you want to know that badly… I got a pen pal!" Oh how exciting it was when her teacher had explained that starting in two next weeks, each person will be assigned a certain place around the world to talk to. Of course, she automatically knew where she wanted her letter to go. "Everyone is hoping to get someone from America! Or England! No one in our class wants to get stuck with Africa." Expect for Kai, she mused to herself, but everyone knew Kai was a bit weird. "Who do you think I'll get daddy?"

To be honest, that was not the surprise he was expecting her to tell him. Truth be told, he knew about this awhile ago when his wife came home with the permission slip from the school. Unknowingly to the children, the parents were the ones who got to choose who they would be writing to. This was supposed to be a secret from the children. Poor Kagome would be stuck with someone that wasn't on her top five list countries.

He was more expecting her to tell him about a picture she drew and how the teacher praised her or something.

"Someone that's not from America?"

"Don't say that daddy! You'll jinx it!"

**Whack!**

"Ah! Stop that Kagome! You'll make me fall!"

"…Sorry… But you really will jinx it."

"What's wrong with other countries? Like Italy?"

"Boring."

Well that wasn't an answer he was expecting. "How so?"

"There's nothing cool about Italy."

"Your daddy was born there."

Would it be rude to say that daddy was boring? Kagome decided against it. Shaking her head in frustration, she began to moan about how Amaterasu or Izanagi would hear her father's words and make her get some random person from a boring county. "Daddy jinxed me." Poor little Kagome, never to know that her father and mother had chosen her pen pal to be from Italy, and even worst, having her father chose who her pen pal was specifically.

So when two weeks have passed, the teacher had to call in her father to come pick Kagome up from class a bit early.

Why?

Well, when she opened her letter, imagine her surprise that her letter, written in sloppy Japanese, had exclaimed in quite bold letters from where the letter came from.

_Dear Pen Pal,_

_ I am happy to have a Japanese friend! I like Japan a lot! There are a lot of cool things! My father says that he will take me there! I am happy that I have a Japanese letter! It makes me very happy! I hope you can read this!_

Something was scratched out here… It was in a different language, so Kagome couldn't read it at all.

_ I will tell you many things about **Italy**!_

_From,_

_Yellow_

Oh, she was going to kill her father when she got home. Right after she stopped crying.

* * *

**Within the Family**

Prologue

The Hidden Box

* * *

"Don't pull that!"

As soon as those words left her mouth, a huge cloud of dust and a loud clatter sound filled the small room. Coughing within the smoky room were the two Higurashi siblings, Kagome and Souta. They were currently inside the Sunset Shrine storage room, sweeping and removing trinkets that stuffed the room full. This week was considered to be the week to cleanse the shrine. Or in other words, throw away all the old items that Grandpa thought was historical artifacts, but in reality were just junk.

Kagome choked on the dust, glaring at her brother with tear filled eyes. "Look what you did! Now we have to start all over!" Giving a glance at the fallen items, she heaved herself back up and shifted herself to the fallen boxes.

Groaning in pain, Souta tried removed the heavy boxes on top of him, "Hey sis! Help me!" He struggled, whimpering when he realized he was stuck until Kagome felt like saving him.

"Give me a second squirt." Her eyes fell to the small metal box with a broken lock that seemed to have fallen out from one of the boxes. It had a strange design on it, a golden emblem with two guns crossing and a bullet within a shield. Lifting it off the ground carefully, she inspected each corner, hoping to find a name or some sort of familiar marking.

She turned her head, "Hey, squirt?" Tilting her head, she examined the pile of boxes that squashed her younger brother. "Squirt… Souta?" Placing the box on one of the shelves, she walked over to the pile and removed each box. "Souta… you okay?" When she finally saw her younger brother's face, she gave out a sigh of relief, "You're not hurt are you?" Her hand extended to grasp Souta's and pulled him upwards.

His face was anything but amused, "Kagome! Why didn't you help me earlier? I was having trouble breathing in there!" A glare was directed to her, his cheeks were slightly inflated and red with frustration.

Ignoring her younger brother's annoyance, she thrust the box towards him. "Take a look at this."

While Souta began to look at the book with not much curiosity, she began to investigate the cardboard box, wondering if there was anything else significant inside it. For some reason, the design felt familiar… as if she had seen it many times before when she was younger. Maybe the box was a gift given to her family from way back then? Ah, no matter. She had an urge to figure it out.

Sighing, her younger brother glanced at the broken lock and removed it from the clasp, placing it in his pocket. Not knowing what else to do other than to open the box, he slowly lifted the cover, half expecting something to explode into his face. But, surprise, nothing of that sort had happen. Finally lifting the cover up, he realized that it was a removable lid, and casually tossed it to the side.

"There's letters in here." Several worn out pieces of paper were held in his hand, "And there's a weird ring." Placing the papers on the side, Souta lifted the ring up and inspected it with his eyes, "It has the same design as that cover." He placed it beside him.

Kagome gave a nod from inside the box she was looking at, "What does the letter say?" Her hands began to move around inside, often times feeling a nice and expensive fabric. 'Is this an old clothes box or something?' It wasn't until she felt something hard against her hand. Moving the box out from the shelf, she adjusted it so she could get a better look. An unfamiliar item stared back at her. 'What the heck is this doing in here?!'

He raised an eyebrow at the content, "I think this belongs to you… Dear Pen Pal, I am happy to have a Japanese friend! I like Japan a lot! There ar-"

A gasp escaped her lips as she drew her head from the box, "It's my pen pal!"

Souta rolled his eyes, "Yes, because we totally didn't know 'Dear Pen Pal' meant it's was your pen pal." He moved the letter onto the ground beside the ring and looked at the one behind it. "I think all of these are yours…" The raven haired boy continued to read each letter, until finally, his eyes found something particular of his interest. It was something he couldn't read. But, at the bottom of the letter, his eyes widen at the signature.

"Dad wrote a letter!"

Moving the box to the ground and closer to her brother, she moved her body so it was right behind Souta's. "What does it say?"

"I-I don't know…" Her squinted his eyes, "I think he wrote this in a different language… Not English…" A mumble of random languages came out of his mouth as he tried his best to figure out what his father had written in.

Nearing her head closer, Kagome glanced a bit at the letter, "I think it's Italian."

"Dad knew Italian?"

She furrowed her brows together, thinking back to a certain point in her memory, "Mom did say dad was a halfie…"

A large smile appeared on Souta's face, "So I'm one fourth Italian? Cool!" He lifted his hair up, flicking them away from his eyes, "At least now I know why I have blue eyes and mom has brown!" He gave the rest of the letters to his sister, while eying the box that was left untouched at the moment, "So what was in the box?"

Biting her lips, Kagome never looked away from the letter, "There was a crossbow… and some suits." If any guess, that box and these letters must belong to her father… but why? Shaking her head, she narrowed her eyes at the thought of her father. Why did he have such a weapon? And what was with all these suits?

After looking through all the letters, she realized that at the bottom of they ones that she couldn't read, there was that same mark as the cover. A clue? Her mother had never said anything much about her father. All she could recall that he was always away, and had a huge air of mystery surrounding him. On the last letter, it's date was on the same day her father had left and never came back… which was almost eight years ago. She picked up the ring that was left beside Souta, staring deeply at the design.

"Kagome?" A look of worry spread across his face, "What is it?"

Ignoring her brother, Kagome began to think up some wild ideas. If she went to Italy, maybe some of the resident would be able to figure out what this mark meant. After all, it seemed to be some sort of big company, judging from the appearance of it. Would this company tell her where her father was?

"I found something in the box!"

Turning her head around, she saw Souta with another letter in his hand. Quickly, she pocketed the ring in her pocket, reminding herself to look at it again later.

"It's written in Japanese!" He rushed over to her and sat down with the letter. He began to read out the contents.

"Yo Tadakatsu!" Souta raised an eyebrow. That was his dad's name? "Long time no chat! Heard you got yourself a new kid, a boy right?" Did he mean himself? "How's that going for you? Anyways, guess who got a kid? I did~ Ahaha, it's great, his name is Tsunayoshi! So far, he's a crybaby… but hopefully he'll grow out of it! Come visit us someday, bring your kid and wife too while you're at it! After all, it's been a while since we both got a break! Visit soon! From…"

"Iemetsu." Kagome finished for him. "We did visit him." And met that crybaby son of his… Really, though Souta was older than him at that time, even he didn't scream and yelp that much. "But I think you were too young to remember it." Another thought occurred to Kagome, did her dad work with Iemetsu?

With that thought, Kagome couldn't help contain the grin from appearing on her face, "Hey Souta, you want to do something cool?" If this worked out, maybe she and her brother could find something out about their family. She watched her brother gave her a hesitated nod before piling him with her ideas.

Unknown to him, as soon as he agreed to what Kagome suggested, it would lead him and his sister to another adventure of a lifetime.

* * *

A/N: Xanxus, Squalo, and Byakuran died. I'm not amused at KHR at the moment. Mostly at the fact that Xanxus lost an arm and died. Other than that... I hope you guys like this. Pairings are decided, but I'm keeping it at secret at the moment.


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